Alex Stanhope

After getting errors like this:
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5030362/how-to-use-opencv-in-python

I discovered that OpenCV works best (most easily) under Windows as 32-bit
http://luugiathuy.com/2011/02/setup-opencv-for-python/

The alternative is to compile OpenCV for 64-bit
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3919681/compiling-opencv-on-windows-7-64bit

I discovered that my Windows install of Python (2.7.3) was conflicting with my (implicit) Cygwin install

(2.6.5), so I removed the Python language package from Cygwin.

I recently managed to install scrapy on a Window 7 64-bit dev machine. It wasn't straight forward so I've

documented the process. Here are the binary install files you need for the install:

python-2.7.3.amd64.msi
lxml-2.3.4-py2.7-win-amd64.egg
pyOpenSSL-0.11.winxp32-py2.7.msi

I was loading underscore.js then applying the .noConflict(). When Backbone (0.5.1) was loading, it couldn't find Underscore (window._). This manifested as a Firefox console error "f is undefined".

Once Backbone has loaded, you can safely clean up both libraries without disrupting either:


var b, u;
b = window['Backbone'].noConflict();
u = window['_'].noConflict();


I recently upgraded my ZendServer (development) from 5.0 to 5.6.0. This includes PHP 5.2.17 and 5.1.50. Everything worked very smoothly, but when I restarted my machine MySQL failed to start (Error 1067). I googled my way to this post, then found the .err file in MySQL's /data directory:


InnoDB: Error: log file .\ib_logfile0 is of different size 0 45088768 bytes
InnoDB: than specified in the .cnf file 0 56623104 bytes!

NTP is a fantastic protocol, but there are cases where you don't want to have another daemon running on a server. This script connects from machine A to machine B using SSH, reads the time from B and applies it to A.


# fetch time from machine B
time=`ssh user@b.domain.com -p522 "date +'%m%d%H%M%Y'"`
# apply date to local machine (A)
echo "Setting time to "$time
date $time


Every time I restart my computer, Skype (5.5) loads, logs in and opens a window. I discovered how to make it load minimised:

• Find the Skype program files folder(C:\Program Files (x86)\Skype\Phone)
• Create a new shortcut
• Modify the target to read /secondary /minimized
• Find the Windows startup folder
• Delete or move the old Skype shortcut out
• Move the new shortcut in
• Run Skype, select View -> Compact mode

Surfy Surveys, a start-up I'm involved in, has just published it's first survey map.

Organisations can employ staff under two contracts, PAYE and consultancy. Tax and National Insurance (NI) is collected at source for PAYE, but deferred for invoiced consulting fees. The table below outlines their equivalency:

I've taken up a new position with Bridgeman, in fact I've already started part-time. I'll be running their Digital team, based largely in London and working with the foreign offices in New York, Berlin and Paris to deliver a new website later this year.

It's been a great privilege working at Technology Strategy Board for the past three years. I'll miss working closely with the other technologists and sector specialists and I wish them every success with their future projects.

I've got a 2TB Western Digital drive that's showing the early signs of failure. It corrupted a 1GB file the other day. The thing is that corruption could be caused by the NTFS driver (Tuxera NTFS for Mac), or even the media encoding software that produced the file (Handbrake). Only time will tell when either a second file is corrupted, or the drive entirely fails.